Silent Love

I smile.
My heart fills up with light and warmth each time I think of you.
I try suppressing my emotions with no result;
I think I love you.
Forbidden love.
Perhaps just an illusion. One of a kind.
The kind that I created,
The kind that keeps me going and I want to know:
Does loving you make me a sinner?
No.
I want to love who I please and I choose to love you.
Not hoping for anything, I just want to love you.
My silent love.
Somewhat of an illusion.
Creation of an intricate mind of mine.
I smile...and hope that in my next life
I will be honored for you to be mine.

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Editor’s Note

The number one question our editors receive is—what do the editors and judges look for when judging the contest? The number one answer we give is creativity. Unlike prose, writing composed in everyday language, poetry is considered a creative art and requires a different type of effort and a certain level of depth. Of the thousands of poems entered in each contest, the ones that catch our judges’ eyes are the ones that remove us, even just slightly, from the scope of everyday life by using language that is interesting, specific, vivid, obscure, compelling, figurative, and so on. Oftentimes, poems are pulled aside for a second look based simply on certain words that intrigued the reader. So first and foremost, be sure your poetry is written using creative language. Take general ideas and make them personal. In his infamous book De/Compositions: 101 Good Poems Gone Wrong, W. D. Snodgrass imparts, “We cannot honestly discuss or represent our lives, any more than our poems, without using ideational language.”